Heart Groups Publish New Performance, Quality Measures for BP Management

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Lorenzo Di Francesco, MD, FACP, FHM

The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) have released 22 new measures aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in adults.

The measures, published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, include six performance measures, six process quality measures, and 10 structural quality measures — the latter being a new category that addresses the U.S. healthcare system's ability to carry out the ACC/AHA's 2017 hypertension guidelines.

One major goal of the document is to offer performance measures for evaluating blood pressure control in adults with stage 1 hypertension (systolic BP, 130–139 mm Hg). Another is to provide new measures for assessing hypertension treatment and monitoring, taking into account lifestyle changes, antihypertensive medication adherence, and home monitoring.

All 22 measures, with their corresponding clinical recommendations, are outlined in the document at the first link below.